Hello, I have footage of high school classrooms that are part of a study by Harvard University and the University of Michigan. In most cases we have permission to show all of the faces, for a few videos we do not. I need to mask certain faces, or blur them so the student cannot be recognized. A few days ago I thought I would be doing this in Premiere Pro - now, for some odd reasons, I'd like to try it in AE.

I was told that I could:

"For each shot, use motion tracking on a person's face, apply that motion-tracking data to a solid layer, use that layer as an adjustment layer, and apply the Mosaic effect to the adjustment layer. This gives you a rectangular blocky/pixelated region over the person's face. If you want to be more refined, you can draw a mask on the adjustment layer to match the shape of the face and get into more detailed rotoscoping."

I have read up on Adjustment layers, the Mosaic effect, and Tracking and stabilizing motion. But I can't seem to figure out how to pull this all together and make it work.

Does anyone have, or know of, a tutorial or video that includes a step-by-step process? I'm under the gun and I just can't this information - I'm probably using the wrong terminology in my searches.

Again, thanks. I need to be much more literal. I was searching on 'Hiding Identity in After Effects' and the like. Once I get better with the AE terms and more comfortable with the process I'll start honing in faster. Today you really saved my behind - thank you, thank you.